Groups to White House: End Anti-Muslim Bias Now.

Defending Dissent Foundation joined over 70 other civil rights and civil liberties organizations in calling on the White House to aggressively address the anti-Muslim bias that pervades federal agencies, as evidenced by unwarranted surveillance of Muslim people and offensive training materials. As the letter, which was coordinated by Muslim Advocates, notes, “this problem has persisted for many years, and recent revelations in a July 9, 2014 article in The Intercept underscore the urgent need to take concrete action to eliminate bias from our nation’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies”. The issue of bias is not new, and the fact that it has been allowed to continue unabated in U.S. intelligence and police agencies despite Administration protestations that they will not tolerate it, demonstrates how intractable the problem is. Clearly the Administration needs to do more to confront it. Our letter makes the following recommendations:

(1) Audit all federal law enforcement and intelligence gathering training and educational materials to identify and remove information that is factually incorrect or exhibits bias against any race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin;

(2) Implement a mandatory retraining program for all federal, state and local law enforcement officials who have been subjected to biased and discriminatory trainings provided by the federal government or with federal funds;

(3) Pursue disciplinary action against those agents and officials engaging in discriminatory conduct and responsible for these training materials;

(4) Require federal agencies that provide law enforcement and homeland security funding to state and local governments to condition such funding on carrying out training or otherwise using federal funds in a manner that upholds our nation’s commitment to equal treatment and equal justice under the law and barring the use of trainers or materials that exhibit bias against any race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin.

Read the full letter: [gview file=”http://localhost/ddf-backup/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/FBI-anti-muslim-trainings-8-14-2014.pdf”]